Blitz in Bejing: Day One

On December 11th the World Mind Games began in Beijing, China. One week some of the word's best players compete in Chess, Go, Draughts, Chinese Chess, (Xiangqi), and Bridge. In chess 16 top men and women play rapid, blitz and basque chess. After four rounds of rapid Nana Dzagnidze, Wang Yue, Wang Hao and Alexander Grischuk are the leading mind acrobats.

The chessplayers will play rapid, blitz and Basque chess (two players play two games simultaneously against each other - one with white, one with black). All in all 24 medals can be won. The first chess tournament is the rapid competition for men and women (Thursday and Friday). After that follows blitz (Saturday to Monday) until the Basque chess tournament finally rounds it off (Tuesday and Wednesday).

The day kicked off for two players very early in the morning. They were the kind volunteers for a photo session by the National Stadium:

Hou Yifan, reigning Women's World Champion

Her rival for the exhibition could not come from
farther away! Dominguez is Cuba's #1 player

The day was cold but with beautiful blue skies, unusual for this month in Beijing

The Beijing National Stadium, known as the Bird's Nest for its unique shape,
was designed and built for the 2008 Summer Olympics

Open Blitz - Day One

Blitz is a unique type of chess. Decisive results, blunders, tactical shots are all more common than in classical time controls. For this reason, material is often not regarded as highly as initiative, and some times being down a piece is acceptable if your opponent is playing with seconds on his block!

Mamedyarov showed us an amazing pawn break to kick things off in round one:

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov showing his tactical genius

Nobody showed a clear dominance from the start. After half of the day was through Nepomniachtchi, Ivanchuk, Radjabov and Aronian all shared the lead with 3.5/5.

Mamedyarov-Aronian finished in favor of the Armenian

Out of these players two went on to share the lead at the end of the day and two collapsed! Ivanchuk finished strong with three draws (against Leko, Grischuk and Dominguez) and two wins (Aronian, Gelfand) to finish 7.0/10.

Ruslan Ponomariov had some problems to start off. He scored two draws and three losses in his first five rounds,
but he at least managed to beat Mamedyarov in the last round of the day to finish on 3.0/10.

Boris Gelfand scored -1 (4.5/10) after a tough day of chess

Aronian won his game against Wang Hao in round six but lost to Ivanchuk in round seven. He quickly recovered and defeated Nepomniachtchi and Radjabov back to back.

Also tied for the lead at the end of the day is Leko. He took quite a different approach to getting there: he did not lose a single game! He finished the day well with victories against Wang Yue and Vachier-Lagrave.

Blitz Standings

Replay blitz games 1-10

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Women's Blitz - Day One

Still going strong: Valentina Gunina

Gunina and Hou Yifan are again the frontrunners in the standings. The Russian started with a smashing 3.0/3, but lost to Mariya Muzychuk in round four. Hou Yifan started with a draw against Stefanova, and then two wins against Dzagnidze and Paehtz put her in a good position.

Things heated up as Ushenina obtained a small measure of revenge from the World Championship match by beating Hou Yifan in their blitz game. At half time, it was Harika Dronavalli and Ju Wenjun that led with 4.0/5, but they both collapsed in the following rounds.

Anna Muzychuk (6.0/10) is doing a quite a bitbetter than her sister, Mariya, (3.5/10) so far

The Indian player went down in flames with four (!) consecutive losses while Ju Wenjun lost three in a row!

Elizabeth Paehtz will start the day tomorrow against Anna Muzychuk

Hou Yifan beat Kosintseva but lost to Kosteniuk, and then had to win three in a row for her lead. Meanwhile Gunina won her rounds six and seven against Dzagnidze and Anna Muzychuk. She entered the last round of the day with an extra half a point, but then the following happened:

Hou Yifan enters the final day with a half point lead, but that is not that significant considering there are 20 games left!

Blitz Standings - Women

Replay women's blitz 1-10

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Another point of attraction was the visit to the sports hall which hosted no less than 800 children, participants in the World Youth Mind Games, playing just like their elderly colleagues: Chess, Bridge, Draughts, Xiangqi and Go. Some of the visiting kids had the chance to play grandmaster Erwin l'Ami, who is doing commentary along with his wife Alina l'Ami, in a simultaenous exhibition:

A grandmaster at work

Against irresistible opposition

Pictures and information from the official website by Gu Xiaobing and Alina l'Ami

Links Official tournament site Rapid Games - Women Rapid Games - Open The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.